Comics site The Mary Sue welcomed the announcement. "Wonder Woman is a great, easily-recognisable symbol of what women can become once freed from a patriarchal society", it said.

But the UK Women's Equality Party said it was "fittingly comic that the UN could not think of a single human woman who could take on this role".

Image copyrightReutersImage caption
Lego lady: The character featured at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego, California

Party leader Sophie Walker said: "I meet extraordinary women every day: women who have survived violence, or defied gender norms to ascend to the top of a hostile industry, or blazed a trail in the arts or media or sport or health.

"These women are truly superheroes. They don't wear hotpants, they don't have the power to wield Thor's hammer - they change lives, and they are the role models our young people need to see."

'Test her appeal'

The ceremony will be held on the 75th anniversary of the comic book character. Created by William Moulton Marston she first came to the public's attention in October 1941.

DC Comics said her story was "meant to test her appeal at a time when female superheroes were rare".

When it became clear the public had quickly taken to her, the company decided to give her her own title and independence.

Wonder Woman - an Amazonian from the all-female paradise of Themyscira - masquerades as Diana Prince, whose occupations include an army nurse, until her services are called on by a society in peril.